Archive for the ‘Kenny Youngblood’ tag

For the past 24 years, the immortal Top Fuel star, Don Garlits, has been honoring his fellow competitors though the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, located at his Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Florida. The Hall of Fame has announced its latest class of inductees, to be enshrined early next year.

The newest inductees begin with John Abbott (left), a Denver native whose career in Top Fuel dated to the front-engine days of the early 1960s. He managed to successfully transition to rear-engine dragsters, enough so that he could score a hugely popular Top Fuel victory at the U.S. Nationals in 1981.

Al Bergler (above) of Shelby Township, Michigan, gained fame in the sport as both a driver and master fabricator. Among a bevy of beautiful cars he created was a Competition Coupe – really, a front-engine dragster with a vestigial hot rod coupe body – called More Aggravation, which remains the only race car to ever win the prestigious Ridler Award in the 49 years that it’s been presented at the Detroit Autorama.

Frank Hawley (right) came out of Canada, but achieved his biggest fame in the United States. First, he took the fabled Farkonas, Coil & Minnick Chi-Town Hustler to consecutive NHRA Funny Car titles beginning in 1982. Next, he filled in for Darryl Gwynn in the family’s Top Fuel dragster following Gwynn’s catastrophic accident in England. He’s since trained numerous neophytes to become racers at the Frank Hawley School of Drag Racing. He lives in Newberry, Florida.

If you’re into old-school nitro racing, you certainly know Tom Hoover (left). Out of Maple Grove, Minnesota, he campaigned a popular series of Funny Cars dubbed Showtime in a family effort that spanned some 30 years. He holds five NHRA Wallys in Funny Car, plus the 1976 AHRA world title in the same category.

Warren Johnson (right) also came from Minnesota before moving to Buford, Georgia, and becoming one of Pro Stock’s most feared competitors. The Professor, as he’s known, was a gifted engine builder. His record includes 97 NHRA wins, six NHRA titles and two IHRA championships in Mountain Motor Pro Stock.

It’s almost impossible to count the number of cars, tracks and racing series – plus the home field of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts – that Forrest Lucas (left) has financially backed over the years. Out of Corona, California, his Lucas Oil Products Company is one of the most prolific sponsors in motorsports. Not only that, but his wife, Charlotte, races a dragster in Super Comp and his son, Morgan, runs a two-car Top Fuel operation.

The Hall of Fame also presents a special honor called The Founder’s Award. Its recipients in the famed hot rod and drag racing artist Kenny Youngblood (right).

The induction ceremony will take place on Thursday, March, 13, 2013, at the Paramount Plaza Hotel & Suites in Gainesville, Florida, just before the NHRA Gatornationals, with announcer and historian Bob Frey as master of ceremonies. For more information, visit Garlits.com.

Many rodders cruise. It’s a fact of life for them. To many, it’s a way of life, which is why two artists, one speed shop and a piece of automotive equipment made their ways into the Cruisin’ Hall of Fame this past weekend.
At the 17th annual Route 66 Rendezvous in downtown San Bernardino this past weekend, the Hall of Fame inducted Gene Winfield, Kenny Youngblood, the So-Cal Speed Shop and the teardrop trailer into its ranks.
Winfield, a famed hot rodder, creates automotive masterpieces both through his metalshaping know-how and his skills with a spray gun. Youngblood, nicknamed the father of modern-day race-car designs, has designed graphics for dragsters, hot rods and other quarter-mile warriors. The So-Cal Speed Shop started in 1946 as one of the first of a new breed of stores that catered specifically to hot rodders. And the teardrop trailer became an icon of 1950s America on the move.
The San Bernardino Convention and Visitors Bureau established the Cruisin’ Hall of Fame in 1995, “to recognize and honor those who have made a significant contribution to the automotive industry and the uniquely American cultural phenomenon of cruising.” Hemmings was inducted into the Hall of Fame back in 2004.
Cruising, once a nationwide phenomenon of youth showing off their hot cars, now occupies a smaller, but still active portion of American culture, restricted mostly to small West Coast towns and to annual car shows.
Next year’s Route 66 Rendezvous will take place September 13-16, 2007. For more information, visit www.route-66.org

(This post originally appeared in the September 21, 2006, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)